The price of freedom

Italian joy at the liberation of the two Simonas after their ordeal in Iraq is clouded by unease over reports that a six-figure ransom may have been paid. Moves are apparently advanced to free two French journalists. The good news for Ms Pari and Ms Torretta and their families - and for two Iraqis released with them - may provide encouragement for the relatives of Kenneth Bigley, shown alive in a disturbing new video broadcast yesterday. Mr Bigley maintained that Tony Blair was not doing enough to secure his freedom, although it should not be forgotten that he spoke while sobbing and chained inside a cage.

Hard facts are elusive in this murky world of kidnapping and shadowy middlemen, but it seems clear that different motives are at work. It is too schematic to draw a precise distinction between criminal gangs and terrorists with a political agenda, though a kidnapping whose goal is financial is relatively easy to resolve. Iraq's interior ministry says that 90% of kidnappings have been carried out by criminals who demand ransoms and in some cases sell their captives to militant groups. Most of the 130 foreigners abducted since April have been released, but about 30 have been killed, some by beheading. Anyone unlucky enough to fall into the hands of the Jordanian Jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an al-Qaida affiliate, is likely to discover that there is no cash substitute for the power to intimidate and horrify by the propaganda of appalling deeds.

The two Simonas probably owe their lives to Muslim and Arab mediation and to the fact that they were in Iraq as aid workers and critics of the war their government backed. Mr Bigley and his two murdered American colleagues, by contrast, worked for a firm building bases for US forces. The fate of the abducted may simply be a matter of nationality, as four Egyptian engineers and an Iranian diplomat have been freed. It is easy to enunciate grand principles about not negotiating with terrorists, but these are more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The US bargained over the American hostages held by Iranian-backed Shia groups in Lebanon, while maintaining the fiction of no deals; Terry Waite mediated with tacit British government approval. Israel has swapped hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese for its own soldiers, alive or dead. If all else fails, discreet payments by intermediaries can save face - and lives, though they are clearly not cost-free. A common sense, pragmatic approach should apply to those kidnapped in the violent, Hobbesian chaos that is Iraq today.